Opinion

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words… so, I’ll try to keep this short (and sweet!).

If you’ve looked around town on Monday mornings before Waste Pro has had a chance to make their rounds there are some amazing sites to see. As reported last month, nearly 75% of occupied households are actively participating in the new trash/recycling program and we have already seen decline in the monthly tonnage of trash hauled off the island….. but, we’ve still got a ways to go.

I don't know who in their evil mind set government's fiscal year to begin on Oct. 1, but they ruin summer for everyone with it. There must be a special place in hell reserved for the person who came up with this idea.

The timetable has government body is struggling with balancing revenues and expenses into a budget during the hottest, most uncomfortable part of the year.

In 2006 I had lived in Cedar Key for almost a year and hadn’t recycled anything. I’m embarrassed to admit it today, but I didn’t even know about the trailers. I lived with my retired father who really couldn’t be bothered and, like most children do, followed suit. Then I met the man who would turn out to be my future husband.

Confidence. Public speaking, interview, and presentation skills. New friends.

These are some of the things I brought home with me from the National American Miss pageant last Sunday and Monday. I haven't been in a pageant since I was a baby, so I obviously did not know what to expect.

I had absolutely no skills in this area. I was judged on four different things; personal introduction (30 percent of score), formal wear (30 percent of score), an interview with the judges (30 percent of score), and community service (10 percent of score).

Late in the afternoon some time back Anne and I were at the Blue Desert relaxing with a brew and an appetizer. We often sat at the counter down on the other end. Not many people had yet arrived. It was still early. We were debriefing each other as we normally do at the end of the day.

Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Law applies to any gathering of two or more local or state government officials who sit on the same board.

Basically, officials are required to keep all meetings open and public. This way, the public can participate if they want to, public records can actually exist, and we as the public can have access to those records.

“You don’t act like you’re thirty, Mom.” I can’t quite tell if it’s embarrassment or amazement coming from my 12-year-old’s mouth. I take a shot in the dark: “You mean I’m acting too old?” I try to hide the worry in my voice. I was excited to hit my third decade last month, but the last thing I was looking for was to be OLD.

“You know, it’s going to be hard when mother dies,” my mom confided to my big brother Roger recently. In the late stages of dementia, sometimes my mom thinks that Roger is her youngest brother Dexter, who died more than 25 years ago. Now in her 80s she still mourns for her mom and her little brother.

I taught freshman composition in the morning at Central Florida Community College in Chiefland then attended middle school in Bronson Tuesday afternoon. And I was schooled.

I know that sounds strange. But it’s the truth.

I went back to middle school because my 10-year-old son, Taylor, who is in fifth grade spent 40 minutes talking to me the night before about a presentation on nicotine that he had seen by a “real scientist,” Dr. Victor DeNoble.

I read an eye-opening book a few years ago called Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations on Race. Though our schools may be largely integrated now, thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of many during the Civil Rights Movement, segregation – in smaller forms – is alive and well.